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Lookup NU author(s): Faisal Saleem, Dr Kui Zhang, Professor Adam Harvey
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is an attractive method for decomposing biomass gasification tars. In this study, the removal of toluene (as a gasification tar analogue) was investigated in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor at ambient and elevated temperatures with hydrogen as the carrier gas. This study demonstrated that higher temperature in the presence of a DBD opens up new (thermal) reaction pathways to increase the selectivity to lower hydrocarbons via DBD promoted ring-opening reactions of toluene in H2 carrier gas. The effect of plasma power (5–40 W), concentration (20–82 g/Nm3), temperature (ambient-400 °C) and residence time (1.43–4.23 s) were studied. The maximum removal of toluene was observed at 40 W and 4.23 s. The major products were lower hydrocarbons (C1–C6) and solids. The synergetic effect of power and temperature was investigated to decrease the unwanted solid deposition. It was observed that the selectivity to lower hydrocarbons (LHCs) increased from 20 to 99.97%, as temperature was increased from ambient to 400 °C, at 40 W and 4.23 s. Methane, C2 (C2H6 + C2H4), and benzene were the major gaseous products, with a maximum selectivity of 97.93% (60% methane, 9.93% C2 (C2H6 + C2H4), and 28% benzene). It is important to note that toluene conversion is not a function of temperature, but the selectivity to lower hydrocarbons increases significantly at elevated temperatures under plasma conditions.
Author(s): Saleem F, Zhang K, Harvey A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Chemical Engineering Journal
Year: 2019
Volume: 356
Pages: 1062-1069
Print publication date: 15/01/2019
Online publication date: 09/08/2018
Acceptance date: 08/08/2018
Date deposited: 22/02/2019
ISSN (print): 1385-8947
ISSN (electronic): 1873-3212
Publisher: Elsevier BV
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2018.08.050
DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2018.08.050
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